Opera Singing Waiters Restaurant in Amsterdam: Pasta e Basta

If you are a pasta lover and need some live entertainment as well while dining in Amsterdam, then this is the place to be. The wait staff at this restaurant have excellent vocal chords, impressive! The woman who served us sang a lovely and impressive opera song. She later told us that she really has a professional singing career, often singing in theater plays and shows, and she does waitressing on the side.

I think the poster painting is the Godfather. This restaurant screams Italian.

Pasta e Basta Restaurant
Website: Pasta e Basta

This restaurant can get busy so in order to secure a table, do call and reserve in advance. There is a standard menu for everyone dining in the restaurant, going at 37,00 Euros per person, and this is:

1) Antipasti which is buffet and unlimited, but if you feast on it too much you might not be able to eat your pasta main courses, so a polite suggestion: go slow.

2) Main course of three types of pastas which includes noodles and rice variations, in short, every thing carbohydrates. You need to have a strong and big stomach to survive this dinner!

3) Entertainment (live music from the singing wait staff).

The receiving foyer of Pasta e Basta.

I had some sparkling, a prosecco while Blondine had her favourite, a dry martini. The interior and ambiance of the restaurant is classic European and very cosy.

Blondine (a much prettier version of Annie Lenox of course during her younger years) and moi. 

My plate of antipasti that I hauled from the antipasti buffet table. Loved the salamis, the grilled paprikas and aubergines doused in olive oil and the anchovy paste! I went for a second serving. Haha, such a glutton, I know.

I wiped my antipasti plate clean and controlled myself not to get a third serving.

In the meantime, while waiting for our mains that seemed to have been diverted through a series of heavy traffic in the kitchen (the couple sitting beside us who arrived while we were having our antipasti were already finishing up, so what the heck?), we have some live musical entertainment:

An opera duet. A very nice one =)

A solo opera act. Other wait staff sang different types of songs (rap, love song, rock, etc.) but I only filmed the opera ones.

One of the female wait staff is singing (opera song) to us.

FINALLY, after reminding several wait staff about our mains and after several, ‘Yes, they are coming!’ and some apologies as well, our three types of pastas have arrived. Blondine and I shared them.

Lasagna Bolognese with grated pecorino cheese and spinach leaves. Blondine loved this.

Fregola with little octopus, fried tentacles and red cabbage. This was my favourite.

Risotto with stracchino cheese, seaweeds(?) and shrimps. This was the least among the three.

And this is my plate. I really, really, really tried to be generous. I did another serving of the fregola though, just a little bit. I love those crunchy octopus and tentacles.

Helaas, the three types of pastas were too much for Blondine and moi. I mean, how much carbohydrates do you need for dinner really? A bit of an overkill for us, but for the pasta lover, this is your dream place. Do not hesitate.

I think the long wait, coupled with the two trips to the antipasti buffet table (we were both guilty hehe), rubbed Blondine and I the desire to tackle down the pasta mains.

My review rating: 4.2 stars out of 5.

Before leaving, we saw another mafia legend:

Scarface: Money, Pasta, Respect =). I watched this film a hundred times. We had fun counting the number of fecks from Al Pacino, haha. 

Visit Period: October 2013
Destination: Amsterdam Centrum (Amsterdam - North Holland), Netherlands

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